


Era of Night

by starv0yager



Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Carth has lost all hope for the future, Carth is a Sith Admiral now, Dark Side Ending, Dark Side Female Revan - Freeform, F/M, Heavy Angst, Past Character Death, Post-Knights of the Old Republic, Revan is slightly yandere, Suicidal Thoughts, Unhappy Ending, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 12:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17787794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starv0yager/pseuds/starv0yager
Summary: Carth finally figures out his shared destiny with Revan. Warnings in the tags





	Era of Night

**Author's Note:**

> ironic that this was posted on Valentines day.

He’d ran away at first, when they were still on Lehon. Revan wouldn’t try to kill him then, he knew that much. A single thought had echoed in his mind: the nightmare he’d lived through once already- the betrayal- had occurred again. Carth found a hidden grove between some towering rock formations and wept. He mourned for the innocent girl he had known back on Taris, who had been swallowed by her former self. They had laughed together and fought side by side. And even after he found out the truth about her horrible past, he still couldn’t stop himself from loving her. But that was a grave error.  


 

Later, he had found his way onto the Star Forge, with the help of the nearly-defeated Republic. He would make a last attempt to sway Revan, or die trying. But a terrible feeling swept over Carth as he saw them walking into the hangar bay. This was not going to end in the way he’d expected. The reinstated Sith stood with her apprentice, the now-corrupted Bastila Shan.  


 

“So you killed Darth Malak. Somehow, I always knew you would.”  


 

“Carth! How did you get here!?.”  


 

“What is he doing!? Don’t listen to him, master. Let me strike him down.” Interjected Bastila.  


 

“Let him speak.” Revan retorted in a harsh voice. After all this time, she still was defending him from Bastila’s jabs.  


 

Carth took a breath and said what he’d been preparing himself for. “I had to come. I said I’d find a way to save you from yourself, and I will.”  


 

“How so?” Her facial expression didn’t change with her reply, the stoic yellow eyes gave away no indication of what she was thinking.  


 

“Nothing you say will sway her, Carth. Your words will fall on deaf ears.”  
“Shut up, Bastila.” Revan didn’t like that, did she? Their old relationship of mild annoyance with each other had deteriorated into barely-contained animosity. But that didn’t matter now.  


 

“I love you. I love you more than anyone else I ever have since my wife, and I didn’t think that was even possible.”  


 

He continued the speech, looking directly into Revan’s eyes. Was the message getting through? Probably not.  


 

Bastila sneered in his peripheral vision. His warning to kill her had only provoked her more, and there was no more Jedi restraint to keep her at bay.  
“This will be the last mistake of your life! I’ll dispose of this obstacle for you, master!” She ignited her weapon.  


 

Revan’s calm aura cracked, the inferno beneath it finally exposed. Carth had sensed it many times before, a flame which ran like an undercurrent behind her every word and deed, powering her iron will. It was boiling over now. This would not end peacefully.  


 

“Don’t you dare.” She extended a hand and made a motion towards Bastila’s neck, disabling her through the Force. One swipe of a lightsaber, and it was all over. Carth turned away, not wanting to see yet another mangled body.  


 

“You’re coming with me, Carth. We need to escape to my flagship- I have great plans for you.”

 

Revan had made a calculated gamble in killing Bastila. The Star Forge was gone, but it had produced such a massive amount of Sith ships and weaponry during its time that the Republic was still hopelessly outmatched. They had no secret weapons and almost no Jedi Order. Analysts predicted the Sith would win the war within the next year or two.  


 

Carth sighed, another exhausting day as Admiral of the Sith come and gone. He dropped on the bed in the private quarters, providing relief to his aching shoulders. He had more power than he had any idea what to do with, and was now in the same position as his former mentor Saul Karath.  
The pain in his shoulders had now transferred itself to his temples, but Carth was in no rush to fall into a relieving sleep. Even though over 2 years had passed since Lehon, and he still got the same nightmares. I’ve been over this already, he said to himself. But in his sleep, where he had no control, he would be subject to the gut-wrenching visions.  


 

Mission’s lifeless corpse on the sand. Jolee leaving for the temple and never returning. Bastila’s last choked cry as Revan killed her on the deck of the Star Forge.  
Speaking of Revan, isn’t she due back soon? His lover-now-wife spent most of her days hunting and exterminating Jedi, but she tried her hardest to make time for her admiral. At first, Carth felt her affections were insincere, and that she would kill him at any moment. He had even contemplated sticking a blaster to his head and doing it himself. But as time wore on, he realized Revan did love him in her own twisted and possessive way. Committing suicide would probably plunge her into a deep rage and make her destroy the rest of the galaxy, and probably herself too. There was no other choice to make. Carth accepted it- he had been defeated.  


 

A beep from the door brought him to the present. His wife was back.  


 

Revan glided into the room, looking surprisingly pleasant for a Sith Lord. The black robes she typically donned were abandoned for more comfortable clothing, and she had even applied makeup around her eyelids to conceal the black circles normal for Sith.  


 

“Hello, Carth.” Her voice was unusually sultry today. She must have missed him a lot, because she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him enthusiastically. She apparently sensed his headache, because with a few light touches around his head it was gone.  


 

“I missed you. You’re the only person I can trust, you know that?” Revan frowned. “I… I lost Canderous on this mission. You’re the only real friend I’ve got left.”  
Carth had never been particularly close friends with Canderous. They hadn’t even had a proper conversation since he was appointed Admiral. Nevertheless, they still had spent a good few months as the crew of the Ebon Hawk, going through the same missions and trauma. He thought to Dustil, who had been killed by a foolish Sith captain almost a year ago. The only link left to his past now was through Revan.  


 

“Shh. It’s okay now.” He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes.  


 

He now accepted there was no way to bring back the old days. The two of them would grow old together in this state of darkness, or die in the meantime. There was no redemption. There were no heroes. There was no hope of rescue. There was only the two of them, intertwined in this era of pitch-black night.

**Author's Note:**

> What if you could kill Bastila at the end of KOTOR1 and make Carth a sith admiral? I think about it a lot. revanasi definitely wouldn't be a healthy relationship in this scenario, though... here, listen to this to kill your angsty mood https://youtu.be/RMj0nbHeWpI


End file.
